99 Days by Katie Cotugno

Day 1: Julia Donnelly eggs my house my first night back in Star Lake, and that’s how I know everyone still remembers everything—how I destroyed my relationship with Patrick the night everything happened with his brother, Gabe. How I wrecked their whole family. Now I’m serving out my summer like a jail sentence: Just ninety-nine days till I can leave for college, and be done.

Day 4: A nasty note on my windshield makes it clear Julia isn’t finished. I’m expecting a fight when someone taps me on the shoulder, but it’s just Gabe, home from college and actually happy to see me. “For what it’s worth, Molly Barlow,” he says, “I’m really glad you’re back.”

Day 12: Gabe got me to come to this party, and I’m actually having fun. I think he’s about to kiss me—and that’s when I see Patrick. My Patrick, who’s supposed to be clear across the country. My Patrick, who’s never going to forgive me.

Beware! There be cursing and spoilers ahead.

Want to know what I hate? Hypocrisy. Want to know what else I hate? Double fucking standards.

Listen, I got Molly and understood where she was coming from. I actually even liked her. She made a huge mistake, but I also feel she was taken advantage off. The girl was a sophomore in high school, so 15 or 16, had just been dumped by her best friend since they were children, her first love. She was devastated. Then Patrick’s older brother Gabe makes a move not even fifteen minutes later. Yes, it was her decision too, but he shouldn’t have put her in the position in the first place. Don’t even get me started on the whole challenge aspect that. So fuck him. Not in a good way either.

Can we talk about what a despicable person Molly’s mom is? Molly made a poor decision in the midst of a devastating break up and immediately felt horrible about it. So while she’s having a break down she confides in her mom what happened. The one person she should be able to trust the most in the world, right? What does mommy do? Writes a book based on the situation and it becomes a best seller. Yeah, okay, it was fictional and authors get inspiration from reality, fine. However, she does an interview with a major magazine and talks about how it’s based on her daughter. What. The. Hell, bitch. This happened Molly’s junior year, and she didn’t think it would have a detrimental effect. She didn’t even give Molly a heads up. Then has this blasé attitude when Molly is being tormented. Out of everything that happened in this book, that was the ultimate betrayal.

Then everyone basically turns on Molly and make her life hell. She’s called a slut and every other demeaning name, is ridiculed and bullied by her former friends. So she transfers to a different school for her senior year, which is totally understandable. Unfortunately, she has to go back home during the summer before she goes off to college, and yup, everyone is still treating her like crap. You know who they’re not treating like crap? Gabe. That’s right, everyone loves him, but she’s nothing but a skank. Oh, how my blood boils. Seriously, these people are disgusting and make me want to burn the town down.

Molly is obviously suffering from depression and has some unresolved issues with everything that went down, so it worried me when Gabe made a move on her again and she got mixed up with him. She even says “It’s like I’ve lost all decision-making capability since I came back here, like I can’t tell the difference between love and loneliness.” She’s so full of self-loathing and poor self-esteem, that it’s heartbreaking to watch her try to navigate these confusing feelings and deal with the pain and bullshit. I admit, it was a bit annoying too, but I get it.

And there’s Patrick. Dude is a douche. I couldn’t stand him in her flashbacks, and most certainly couldn’t stand him in the present time. He’s the most hypocritical piece of shit. So Molly and Gabe start dating when she came back, and she tries to be friends with Patrick because she still cares for him and doesn’t want things to be so awkward. But he is the one who instigated them messing around. He has a girlfriend and knows she’s with his brother, but still pursued her. That really screwed with her head. I mean, she obviously never had closure and still loved him. Her life was so tightly interwoven with the whole family since they were small children, so it would be difficult to just turn all those unresolved feelings off. I can see how that could go for Patrick as well, but it’s how he went about things and his attitude that made the difference. He sends her all these huge mixed signals and then … ugh … he pissed me off so freaking bad! View Spoiler »She asks if she should break up with Gabe, because she was willing to drop him for Patrick. He says he’s not breaking up with his girlfriend as he keeps instigating make outs sessions. Then … THEN … he shows up at her house in the middle of the night so they can lose their virginity together. Then when he realizes she already lost it to Gabe, he flips out and calls her a whore. Really, motherfucker? He has a girlfriend he has no intention of breaking up with, who he’s talking about a future with, yet she’s the whore? « Hide Spoiler Fuck you, and your hypocritical high horse. Then the guy has a drunken tantrum in front of everyone, and makes it like she’s all to blame. I really, really don’t like him.

I did like how it ended, though. Well, mostly anyway. I was happy that Molly eventually worked through all of the drama and learned what I was hoping she would. However, it kind of felt flat and didn’t have quite the impact it could have. I do want to make it clear that I don’t despise the book, because it’s actually an okay read. I just despise most of the characters and their actions, which I’m sure is how it was meant to be.

As you can see, 99 Days brought out some strong emotions in me, but these are only a small fraction. I’m just tired of thinking about it now, so I’m leaving it as it is.

22 responses to “99 Days by Katie Cotugno”

I don’t think this is more me, but I sure LOVED the review…LOL, don’t hold back Christy! It can’t be all bad if can inspire this kind of emotions. It seems hard to fell really satisfied with the ending when they pull your strings this hard. It does sound like there’s a bunch of douchebags in the story.Lupdilup recently posted…The Audiobook Salad Edition Two (Audiobook Reviews)

At first I was super curious about 99 days but after your review Christy, I feel like this one is just going to make my blood boil. I already loathe Molly’s mom. LOATHE HER. I may have called whe a few names when I read what she did. I don’t think this ones for me. I don’t want to get angry with my next read.Lily recently posted…The Assassin’s Blade (Throne of Glass 0.1-0.5)

This definitely sounds interesting. I’ve read those books, the ones where you abhor the characters, but the story was good. You know, you don’t have to like them to make it a good book, right? I really loved this review. I’m not even going to be smart ass about it 🙂Liz recently posted…Full Contact by Sarah Castille (Review & Giveaway)

I HATED this book. HATED it. I HATED every single character and wanted to push them all off a cliff. I DNFed it pretty early on, but it sounds like it got only worse. Ugh Patrick sounds like such a dick. I didn’t even care for Molly either. I was annoyed by how everyone treated her at first, but the girl obviously did not learn from her mistakes and that’s what bothered me so much. I was under the impression that the book would be about Molly learning something positive after her horrid experience, but she turned out to be the same freaking idiot. Ugh. Can you tell this book brings all the ragey feelings?!Nick recently posted…Blog Tour Stop : Gods of Chaos by Jen McConnel

Ha! I think this book pissed off a lot of people (me included). I couldn’t stand Molly. I know some people liked her but I didn’t, at all.
Great review Christy!!kindlemom1 recently posted…Review: Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

Wow. Clearly this book hit a few of your hot buttons Christy! And I have to say, after reading your review and the spoiler, I have a few choice words to say about Patrick as well. This is not the book for me, it’s going to piss me off like it did you and that’s no fun at all. Sometimes books piss you off in a good way, like with a villain who you love to hate, but this is not that kind of pissed off so I’m going to pass:)Jenny recently posted…Still The One Blog Tour: Interview + Giveaway

I won’t even consider reading that book (don’t want to be pissed off), but I absolutely adored your review ! I hoped you had time to relax and feel better now 🙂 Books and fictional characters can really make us feel like they’re real, don’t they !Red Iza recently posted…Hottie of the week

So let me get this straight… you don’t like the characters? Ha ha.. I loved reading your ranty review. It was too funny. I think I will stay away from this one.Heidi recently posted…Friday Forecast April 12th-18th

I really wanted to try this one, but I knew I would spend most of the time pissed at most of the characters and wouldn’t have enjoyed it. I HATE HYPOCRISY AND DOUBLE STANDARDS. Why is it always the girl who nobody ever forgives for making a mistake or being “slutty” but men are practically looked upon in pride. It’s absolutely disgusting that slut shaming is okay in our culture and always takes me out of the book *sigh*Sarah recently posted…No Limits by Lori Foster

I agree with all the points you have made here! This is one the most weirdest books I have read, but I also found it a bit fascinating since I did finish it to the very end. I didn’t like any of the characters except Tess, Molly’s mother annoyed me so much, who does that to their own daughter? YIKES 🙁 You’re right about the double standards as well, I wish the author challenged it more in the novel.. Love the intense breakdown of the book <3Benish recently posted…Angelfall ♥ by Susan Ee Review

Woah there. I read a review that this was a good read, but your review just blasted the whole thing and now I’m changing my mind. Definitely not reading this book with characters so terrible and infuriating! Staying away from this for sure. You definitely killed this review, lmao! Awesome!Blessie (Mischievous Reads) recently posted…BOOK TOUR: Full Contact by Sarah Castille + Excerpt & Giveaway!

I can’t believe you still thought it was an okay book. I know I would have dnf’d it early on. 🙂 Double standards and hypocrisy? No thanks. 🙂 Did enjoy your review though! 😀Melissa (Books and Things) recently posted…Audiobook Review: Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill

I loved this one! And totally agree about the characters, there was so much hypocrisy and over reaction to something that was none of their business. It made me feel awkward and uncomfortable but I loved that it made me care,Trish recently posted…The Sunday Post : Get your Bookish News #64

Well, I am certainly glad I got knocked back on this one! It sounds a little frustrating! Both brothers sounds like they are assholes, Molly’s mother is a bitch and Molly was an idiot!! Lol! Oh well, glad it was an ok read for you.Naomi recently posted…Nomi’s Weekly Wrap Up 132